I have no idea how long it’s been since I’ve posted here. I pretty much keep up with far away friends with Facebook and email so there isn’t a whole lot of my life left to discuss on here! I’ve cut back on my thrift shopping of late although I’ve been evolving stylistically so lots of items in my wardrobe are headed out the door to the next Clothes Swap and lots of linen and cotton layers have been replacing them (thrifted, of course!). I’m really into a style referred to as “Lagenlook” which is a German word meaning ‘layered look’. It’s a little bohemian, a little Japanese, a little Swedish…

I’ve been loving Portland’s (Portland, Maine) First Friday Artwalk and have several arty friends who display work both on the street and in galleries. Very exciting! Below is a photo from our last FFA.

‘

I’ve become completely, unabashedly addicted to Pinterest. If you’d like to see what I’ve been up to, you can see reflections of my interests and bits of my life by looking at my boards. Lots of art, household tips and tricks, style guides, thrifting tips – you name it, it’s probably there. Here is a link:

I burn if i look out the window and a tiny sliver of sunlight touches me so generally I avoid the beach. But kids love water and sand and the weatherman predicted temperatures in the 90’s today so off to the (lake) beach we went!

A couple weeks ago we decided to “go see where Daddy works” so we met Richie in Lewiston where he had been down inside a stinky manhole down under the street. He smelled heinous. But we hung out with him for a bit while he took a break. The girls got to try on his hard hat. They were tickled to see him at work and check out his gear.

Friday night, after checking out the Congress Street portion of Portland’s 1st Friday ArtWalk, we walked over to Silly’s on Washington street. It was not a walk for the faint of heart. If I had known how far away it was from High street (where my car was parked in a parking garage that charged by the hour $$$!), I would have gone back for my car and driven there. Seriously, it was like 2 sweaty, hot, hungry miles from where we were. However, the food, friends, and funky atmosphere made it all worthwhile! Each table has a Silly’s lunchbox on it – the plastic kind that held your peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in first grade. Inside are menus and extra napkins and games you can play while you wait for your food. I was too busy talking to play any but I did spy an Uno deck in there. The walls are covered in framed photos of people posing with Silly’s bumper stickers taken in different states and countries. The rest of the decor is funky and quirky and totally lives up to the restaurant’s name. The food was AWESOME! The menu has countless options so you can add to or alter the available menu options anyway you like. I had a “gut buster” burger with guacamole and it came with homemade sweet potato fries. I also ordered a side of fried pickles. I wanted to try the sliced variety since the last ones I tried were pickle spears. They come with this pink horseradish sauce that is out of this world! I ended up dipping my sweet potato fries and bites of my burger in it too. Sitting here thinking about it, my mouth is totally watering – no lie. They also have homemade shakes that you can customize with about 60 different ingredient choices. My daughter ordered a chocolate caramel BACON shake. She loved it and the extra mound of bacon at the bottom was soooo good. I want to try making bacon soaked in chocolate sauce at home sometime. It sounds bizarro but was AMAZING. Seriously. No lie. I would go back just for that. So, if you find yourself hungry in Portland, you gotta give Silly’s a try. I can’t wait to go back!

So here and there I’ve mentioned Maine’s first Goodwill Outlet called “Buy-The-Pound”. It’s located in the Gorham Industrial Park, off route 25.

The wonderful thing that differentiates the outlet from the standard gw location is that the more you buy, the cheaper it is! Here is the basic pricing structure:

If you find something wonderful but unusually heavy (and not cloth), ask an employee for a price. They are super nice. The furniture and appliances usually have a WHITE price tag with the outlet price. If you see a price tag of any other color, just ignore it. Those are the old prices from when they were for sale at the original GW location.

Here is a series of photos taken from the vantage point just inside the entrance looking from left to right.

There is a set of large double doors at the back of this wall and as they open, you can watch them roll out the newly refilled bins. They emerge to replace a few of the existing long bins every couple hours.

The two bins of each row, closest to the entrance are taken away every couple of hours. Then the two bins at the back of the row are pushed over to replace the ones toward the entrance. Then they will bring out two new bins to fill in the row. This is important to know because you will want to look through the bins that are about to be taken away. You will also want to pay attention when they start to roll away the “old” bins because, as soon as they are gone, the new “fresh”, refilled bins will be emerging soon!

There are lightbulbs and empty outlets for you to test anything with a plug. I’ve purchased lamps, a breadmaker, and other items from these shelves and every one of them worked Great!

This includes toys, pictures, kitchen items, you name it – anything that isn’t cloth.

Once the bins have been picked over, any remaining pots & pans, rugs, dishes, pictures, books, stuffed toys, and luggage are taken out and put into their respective areas of the store.

The restrooms have always been neat and clean. You go out the “exit” door into the main part of the warehouse and follow the green and white tape on the floor to find the restrooms.

You’ll notice in this photo that there are several filled shopping carts along the wall. STAY AWAY from them! These are the treasures that other people have gathered. If you fill a cart but have more treasures yet to gather, you park your full cart there so that you can get yourself another one and continue shopping. (Word to the wise…. You may want to cover your full cart with a sheet or blanket so that your treasures don’t tempt anyone. Out of sight, out of mind.)

So….when times are tough and the day has beaten the life outta me, I turn the wheel and my faithful minivan/mom-mobile heads to the closest source of quality caffeine – Starbucks.

The downside of living in a town (actually it might really be considered a “village” since the population is so small – one of these days I really should find out) instead of a city, is that there are no coffee shops nearby. The closest Starbucks location is a rest stop on hwy 95. Since Maine is classier than those people “running on Dunkin'” over in Massachusetts, all of OUR rest stops have a Starbucks inside. (I tell you, no state was longer to drive across on my last roadtrip than MA. ONLY mcD’s and Skunkin’ Dunkin’ for what felt like a thousand miles!)

Fortunately there is a backside access to our rest stops so that the locals don’t have to take the hwy (and pay the tolls) to get there. The first time I found my way there, I did a little happy dance of joy!

Recently, all of our rest stops have been getting a little added flair. One has a giant metal moose sculpture, another has a large metal sculpture of another example of Maine wildlife. Up until recently, the Grey location was without such decorations. Someone apparently thought this should be remedied. Unfortunately, the latest addition leaves something to be desired.

Instead of an impressive artistic rendering of a majestic animal, WE got a pair of fiberglass deer that look like they,d be right at home on a put-put golf course. Or possibly a backwoods grandma’s trailer park lawn. Seriously – I suspect they were purchased from Walmart’s lawn and garden section. They are SO sad.

And last week, they put up a little plaque in front of them.

I decided to get a closer look to see if maybe their true purpose was to educate the public on the local deer population or some other informative tidbit. Unfortunately, even the plaque was disappointing. It instructs the observer to look but don’t touch the deer. I guess in addition to their being cheap looking, they are fragile as well.

Last week the bigger brand new Windham Goodwill opened its doors for the first time. The old location was small and, except for their books, there was not ever enough space to have much of a selection. The construction of the new location (off of 302 down the same driveway/road that you take to go to Walmart) had me pretty excited all winter in eager expectation of the grand opening!

So I finally checked it out today for the first time. The floor plan is identical to the fairly new Auburn location. Like the Auburn store, it was well organized, clean, and well lit. However, like most of the Goodwills I’ve been to in the past six months or so, the prices were higher than they really should be. When the sign reads, “Dresses $4.99”, then the majority of the dresses should be that price. Not $7.99, 9.99, and $14.99! Come on now, Goodwill. You get the clothes FOR FREE. Why do you have to be greedy about it?

However, one good thing about a grand opening location is that it is stocked full of the best stuff for at least the first few weeks or so. This means lots of items in like new condition or with the original tags still on them. Normally, if I see an item marked at more than the standard rack price ($4.99), if it isn’t on sale, I just keep on walking. However, today I ended up trying on a few of them and falling so deeply in love that they came home with me. Not all of them, mind you. But several. I found a well made, heavy weight cotton DKNY sundress, tags still on it, that wasn’t see through, can be washed, and fit me like a dream! I’ve been searching recently for a bright white light sweater made of natural fabrics and found a gorgeous cotton one by Bass that was just what I’ve been searching for and was brand new with the original store tags to boot! I found a few other like new quality pieces and some really cute kids clothes (at the standard $1.99 price point Sweet!) for my girls.

I also found a pair of vintage lace-up shoes that were new old stock. There were a couple of identical pairs with traces of the tissue paper they were wrapped in still on them. I’m guessing they are from the 60’s or early 70’s. Love! I also noticed a large number of pairs donated from L.L.Beans. Typically, GW marks them way too high so I just wait till they go on clearance or end up at the Buy-The-Pound location (more on that later). But I found a pair of kid-leather soft tie up booties that were mistakenly displayed in the men’s section. (Not only do female customers hide shoes in that isle, but there are enough careless/dumb employees who stock women’s shoes in that isle that it is always worth perusing, just in case.) They were brand new but marked a crazy $14.99. I put one on before I realized this and the softness and comfort had already sucked me in. I walked around the store for the next hour or so with that one bootie on one foot and my croc on the other, just to test it out to see if the cushy softness would eventually wear off and dissolve into discomfort. Surprisingly the cushy soft magic didn’t wear off in all that time so I ended up reasoning that I’d never be able to afford those boots, even on clearance outlet prices, if i bought them anywhere else. So with that justification in mind, they also came home with me.

While walking around, I overheard one woman say to her friend, “I’ll be honest with you – I’m not impressed.” I heard this same basic conversation several times. Also, sometimes the people doing the pricing get a little TOO excited when an item still has its store tags. Every so often, you find one that is priced at MORE than the original tag. Tsk, tsk! Shame on you, GW!

All in all, it was a fun afternoon and I left with quite a bit of stuff I was excited about. I don’t have any plans to rush back there anytime soon. But I did leave with treasures, which IS the real point to a trip to GW, afterall.

After days and days of dark skies and downpours and thunder and lighting (felt like we were living in a black and white old Frankenstein movie) the SUN IS SHINING ONCE MORE!!!

It is truly remarkable how the weather and seasons effect a person’s mood, especially in New England. The negative ions and rain have made the air smell great and trees and lawns are so lush and green now. It makes want to go outside and play just as much as my six year old!

The sun streaming in the windows and mild, warm temperatures makes me want to dig in and get some cleaning and organizing done. The washer and dryer all already going. My daily postcard is already in the mailbox waiting on the mail lady (we seem to have only women postmen. Not sure why. And different ones depending on the day. Is this the route that nobody wants? Weird.). I’m thinking it’s time to finally rid myself of the mountains of recyclables filling the mudroom.